Does My FemTech Product Provide Support?

One only needs to spend a little time in fertility awareness-related Facebook groups to see that women who use the various femtech products frequently have questions, ranging from how to properly use it to why it is giving them the results it is. All too often they are seeking answers via Facebook because their product doesn’t provide ongoing support.

Most of these technologies are designed for and tested in women with typical cycles but every woman will have atypical cycles at least some of the time. Picking a method that provides access to ongoing support is critical when this happens to you.

If the support offered by a device or app is just an online community of users, how will you know if the information being offered is supported by science or just someone’s opinion? Getting connected to trained teachers or coaches is critical.

Here’s something else to consider: Using a femtech app without formal instruction in a fertility awareness method increases your chance of having issues with the app. Recently published data shows those who start using a fertility tracking app without the benefit of formal instruction are significantly less diligent at entering critical daily data and abandon it sooner, compared to those who have formal training in the FABM employed by the tracker (Manhart 2020).

Bottom line, femtech can be helpful but nothing will substitute for actually knowing how to use an FABM by taking a class from the provider. To learn more about the various methods, visit https://fertilityscienceinstitute.org/fabm/.